Patch and device for cleaning firearms

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a patch ( 1 ) for cleaning firearms, comprising a circular central portion ( 1   a ) and a plurality of flaps ( 1   b ) extending therefrom radially outwards. Thanks to the presence of the flaps ( 1   b ) it is possible to achieve a uniform contact between the patch ( 1 ) and the surface of a cavity (C) to be cleaned, thus minimizing the formation of pleats in the patch ( 1 ) and allowing to reduce the number of sweeps and rotations of the patch ( 1 ) and of the cleaning device during cleaning. The invention also relates to a device for cleaning firearms comprising at least one patch ( 1 ) and at least one supporting member ( 2 ) suitable to allow to fix the at least one patch ( 1 ).

The present invention relates to a patch and a device for cleaningfirearms, and in particular for cleaning deep cavities such as those ofa barrel and a drums.

In the field of firearms, e.g. for use in sports, there is a strong needto clean a firearm after each use. In addition to cleaning themechanisms related to the trigger and to the load of the ammunitions, agood cleaning of the cavities of e.g. barrel and drum, through whichammunitions pass is very important. In fact the cavities of barrel anddrum are those where dust and dirt are more easily built up. Moreover,residuals of gunpowder mixed with lubricants that are normally used tomaintain a firearm fully efficient are built up over time in cavities ofbarrel and drum. It is well known that a lack of maintenance or a poormaintenance of a firearm causes wear-out and malfunctioning during use.

Generally, the cleaning of the cavities of a firearm is carried outmechanically by brushing and/or with the aid of suitable chemicalsolvents. After the step of mechanical and/or chemical cleaning it isnecessary to carry out a lubrication step, which is generally carriedout by using patches soaked with special lubricants.

Numerous devices for cleaning firearms are known, generally comprisingrigid or flexible rods at whose distal end brushes are arranged, orpatches made of a textile material, e.g. cotton or synthetic fibers, arefixed. There are also devices configured to receive both brushes andpatches in different combinations.

Patent EP 0082230 discloses, for example, a device for cleaning firearmscomprising a rod at one end of which a brush having a cylindrical shapeis coaxially arranged. The device also comprises a patch made of atextile material and having the shape of a sleeve suitable to be fittedand fixed onto the cylindrical brush.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,627 discloses a device for cleaning the barrel of afirearm comprising a flexible rod at one end of which a threadedconnection is rotatably arranged, which is suitable to allow to mount acylindrical brush having a size corresponding to the bore of thefirearm. At the opposite end of the rod a slotted member is rotatablyarranged, which is suitable to allow the insertion of a patch forfurther cleaning and lubricating the barrel.

Other cleaning devices for firearms are disclosed, for example, inpatent publications US 2006/147247, US 2006/236584, US 2007/266610 andin patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,607.

The patches used with the cleaning devices for firearms are preferred tothe brushes because the are very cheap and disposable products thatallow to carry out cleaning operations as well as the lubrication of thecavities of a firearm. Moreover, differently from most of the brushes,patches are substantially independent of the bore of the firearm, whichallows to use them in an extremely flexible way with firearms havingdifferent bores.

A problem of the known patches for cleaning firearms is that, onceinserted into the cavity of a barrel or a drum, they do not folduniformly without the assistance from a user and thus they may notcompletely contact the inner surface of the cavity to be cleaned and/orlubricated. Therefore, the user must make multiple sweeps and rotationsof the patch throughout the cavity to completely clean and/or lubricateit. This is remarkably time consuming and may lead a user to neglect themaintenance of the firearm with the above-described negativeconsequences.

A possible solution to this problem is proposed by the internationalpublication WO 2010/019267, which discloses a planar triangular patchfor cleaning firearm bores. The patch has similarly sized notches placedcentrally along the edges of the patch, permitting a uniform level ofpleating as the patch is inserted into a firearm bore and wraps around ajag.

However, the presence of a number of pleats in a folded patch stillresults in portions of the patch that do not contact the inner surfaceof the cavity, thus requiring the user to make multiple sweeps androtations of the patch throughout the cavity to be cleaned orlubricated.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a patchand a device for cleaning firearms, which allow to overcome saiddisadvantages. Said object is achieved with a patch and a cleaningdevice, whose main features are disclosed in claims 1 and 3,respectively, while other features are disclosed in the remainingclaims.

An idea of solution to the technical problem of minimizing the number ofsweeps and rotations of a cleaning device employing patches is that ofproviding the patch with a plurality of flaps protruding radiallyoutwards from a central portion having a circular shape. When the patchis inserted into the cavity to be cleaned the flaps are folded by 90°with respect to the circular central portion thus progressively goinginto contact with the surface of the cavity and coming closer and closerto each other up to forming a cylindrical surface that is substantiallyhomogeneous and compact. In such a way a uniform contact between thepatch and the surface of the cavity to be cleaned is obtained, thuspreventing or minimizing the formation of pleats and allowing to reducethe number of sweeps and rotations of the patch and the cleaning deviceduring the cleaning and lubricating operations.

The main advantage offered by the invention is to allow an effectivecleaning of the cavities of a firearm in times that are remarkablyshorter than those required when patches of a known type are used.

The device of the invention comprises at least one patch and asupporting member suitable to allow to fix and maneuver the patch. Thesupporting member has a rather small size in an axial direction in orderto allow an easy cleaning of cavities that are not too deep, e.g. thecavities of a gun drum, but may advantageously be connected to anextending member, such as e.g. a rigid or flexible rod, in order toallow to clean deeper cavities such as e.g. the cavity of a riflebarrel.

The supporting member is so sized to define with respect to the surfaceof the cavity to be cleaned a play that substantially corresponds to thethickness of the patch, thus allowing to achieve not only a completecontact between the flaps of the patch and the surface of the cavity,but also a rubbing action allowing to remove dust and residuals ofgunpowder.

The idea of providing the patch with foldable flaps advantageouslyallows to adapt a single patch to cavities having different diameters bysimply using supporting members suitable to define with the cavity to becleaned a play each time corresponding to the thickness of the patch.Consequently, it is possible to standardize the shape and size of thepatches, thus reducing their manufacturing costs.

Further advantages and features of the patch and the cleaning deviceaccording to the present invention will become clear to those skilled inthe art from the following detailed and non-limiting description ofembodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a patch according to the invention;

FIGS. 2 and 3 respectively show a top view and a partial longitudinalsection of a first embodiment of a cleaning device according to theinvention;

FIG. 4 shows the cleaning device of FIGS. 2 and 3 inserted in a cavityof a firearm; and

FIG. 5 shows a top view of a second embodiment of a cleaning deviceaccording to the invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a patch 1 according to the invention comprises acentral portion 1 a having a circular shape and a plurality of flaps 1 bextending therefrom radially outwards. The patch 1 may be made of atextile material such as cotton, synthetic fibers or other textilematerials that are generally used in the manufacturing of patches forcleaning cavities of firearms.

The patch 1 is generally used together with cleaning devices comprisinga supporting member on which the patch is inserted before theintroduction of the cleaning device into the cavity to be cleaned. Inorder to ease the insertion of the patch 1 onto the supporting member,the circular central portion 1 a of the patch 1 may advantageouslycomprise a guiding hole 1 c.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the cleaning device according to theinvention comprises a supporting member 2 formed of a body 2 a having asubstantially cylindrical shape. The cylindrical body 2 a is provided ata distal end thereof with a tip 2 b adapted to pierce the patch 1, e.g.through the guiding hole 1 c, in order to allow to arrange and fix it.Once inserted on the tip 2 b, the patch 1 abuts a top surface 2 c of thecylindrical body 2 a, which thus blocks the movement of the patch 1along the axial direction.

The supporting member 2 has a rather small size in the axial direction,e.g. comprised between 4 and 8 cm, in order to ease the cleaning ofcavities having a small depth such as e.g. those of the drum of a gun.In order to allow to clean deeper cavities such as e.g. the cavity of arifle barrel, the cleaning device of the invention may further compriseat least one extending member (non shown), e.g. a rigid or flexible rod.Correspondingly, the supporting member 2 is provided with connectionmeans 4 arranged at a proximal end 2 d opposite to the distal endadapted to receive the patch 1, i.e. where the tip 2 b is arranged.

As shown in FIG. 3, the connection means 4 may be made in the form of athreaded connection. Alternatively, the connection means 4 might be madein the form of a snap or magnetic connection, as well as in many otherequivalent ways well known to a skilled person.

The supporting member 2 is so sized to define with respect to the cavityto be cleaned a play that substantially corresponds to the thickness ofthe patch 1.

As shown in FIG. 4, once inserted the device into the cavity C to becleaned, the flaps 1 b are folded and contact on one side the surface ofthe cavity C and on the other side the cylindrical body 2 a of thesupporting member 2. In this way it is possible to achieve an effectiverubbing action of the patch 1 against the surface of the cavity C to becleaned, which facilitates both the removal of dirt and the subsequentlubrication step and allows to minimize the number of sweeps androtations of the patch and the cleaning device.

The supporting member 2 has a diameter substantially equal to thediameter of the circular central portion 1 a of the patch 1, whereby theflaps 1 b are folded proximate to the periphery of the circular centralportion 1 a. Moreover, the flaps 1 b are suitably spaced from oneanother in a circumferential direction so as to come close to oneanother without overlapping and forming pleats once in contact with thesurface of the cavity C to be cleaned. In the embodiment shown in FIGS.1 to 4, the patch is provided in particular with three flaps arranged at120° from one another in the circumferential direction.

The number of flaps 1 b and their distance along the circumferentialdirection are so configured to obtain a cylindrical surface that issubstantially homogeneous when the fold line of the flaps 1 b is incorrespondence to the periphery of the circular central portion 1 a.Consequently, in order to correctly clean all the possible cavity sizesa patch 1 and a supporting member 2 having a size corresponding to thesize of the specific cavity C would be needed, which would be poorlyconvenient, expensive and contrary to the aim of the invention.

According to a further aspect of the invention, it is possible to use asingle patch 1 for cleaning cavities C of firearms having differentbores. To this end, the device comprises a plurality of supportingmembers 2 that can be chosen and interchanged on the basis of thediameter of the cavity C to be cleaned. In this way, it is alwayspossible to maintain between the cavity C and the supporting member 2 aplay that is equal to the thickness of the patch 1, thus allowing toachieve an effective rubbing action of the patch 1 against the surfaceof the cavity C and avoiding problems of misalignment between the latterand the supporting member 2, which make the cleaning sweeps moredifficult and might result in peaking of the cleaning device in thecavity C during cleaning.

It is clear that by using a supporting member 2 having a diameter largerthan the diameter of the circular central portion 1 a of the patch 1,the flaps 1 b will not be folded at the periphery of the circularcentral portion 1 a, but at an outer zone, thus resulting in a number ofdiscontinuities, i.e. longitudinal apertures, in the cylindrical surfacecovering the supporting member 2 once inserted in the cavity C. Thisdrawback may easily be solved by using at the same time a number ofpatches 1, 1′, . . . identical to each other and by arranging themsuperimposed to each other and so rotated relative to each other thattheir respective flaps (1 b, 1 b′, . . . ) are spaced along thecircumferential direction without overlapping. In this way, onceinserted the cleaning device into the cavity C, the flaps 1 b, 1 b′, . .. will be adjacent to each other thus forming a cylindrical surface thatis substantially homogeneous.

For example, FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the device according tothe invention comprising two patches 1, 1′ each having three flaps 1 b,1 b′ spaced by 120° from each other along the circumferential direction.The patches 1, 1′ are mutually rotated by about 60°, whereby the flaps 1b′ are aligned with the bisecting line of the 120° angle between theflaps 1 b, thus allowing to achieve a very homogeneous cleaning surfaceon the cylindrical body 2 a of the supporting member 2.

The embodiments of the invention herein disclosed and illustrated areonly examples susceptible of numerous variants. For example, thesupporting member 2 might comprise one or more grooves formed in the tip2 b in a circumferential direction, thus allowing not only to block themovement of the patch 1 along the axial direction, but also to hold itduring sweeping, thereby allowing to make cleaning sweeps not only fromthe entry of the cavity to the exit, but also in the opposite direction.Further, with particular reference to the possibility of using patchesof a standard size in combination with interchangeable supportingmembers of a different diameter, it is also possible to foresee the useof a number of standard patches of different size, each one adapted tofit cavities having diameters comprised in predefined ranges.

1. A patch for cleaning firearms, comprising a circular central portionand a plurality of flaps extending therefrom radially outwards.
 2. Apatch according to claim 1, wherein said circular central portioncomprises a guiding hole suitable to allow to fit the patch onto asupporting member.
 3. A device for cleaning firearms, comprising atleast one patch according to claim 1 and at least one supporting membersuitable to allow to fix the at least one patch, said supporting memberbeing formed of a cylindrical body that is provided at its distal endwith a tip suitable to pierce the patch.
 4. A cleaning device accordingto claim 1, wherein said tip comprises one or more grooves formed in thecircumferential direction and suitable to block the movement of thepatch along the axial direction.
 5. A cleaning device according to claim3, further comprising at least one extending member and in that thesupporting member further comprises connection means arranged at itsproximal end and suitable to allow the connection of the supportingmember with the extending member.
 6. A cleaning device according toclaim 3, wherein the diameter of the cylindrical body is substantiallyequal to the diameter of the circular central portion of the patch.
 7. Acleaning device according to claim 3, wherein the supporting member issized so as to define with respect to a cavity (C) to be cleaned a playcorresponding to the thickness of the patch.
 8. A cleaning deviceaccording to claim 3, further comprising a plurality of interchangeablesupporting members having a different diameter.
 9. A cleaning deviceaccording to claim 3, further comprising a plurality of patches equal toeach other, said patches being superimposed on the supporting member andso rotated relative to each other that their respective flaps do notoverlap.